Miskin Mill

Miskin Mill is located on the Hensol road just outside Miskin. There has been a water driven corn mill here for most of the last 400 years. Since 1929 the site of the mill and the area around it has been in continuous use by Scouts for camping and training purposes.

There are three buildings some over 250 years old, ‘The Mill’ with kitchen, eating and activity room facilities, ‘The Cottage’ with activity rooms and ‘The Lodge’, which has sleeping accommodation.

These are set in about 3 acres of flat, tree lined fields which are bounded to the South by the river Ely across which a permanent footbridge, built in 1992, provides access to about 4 acres of woodland known as Mill Wood.

Milling has taken place in Miskin for hundreds of years. Prior to the present Mill there were older Grist and Fulling mills. A fulling Mill in Miskin owned by the Clare family was rented out for 13 shillings and 4 pence in 1314. By 1316 the rent had increased to over 53 shillings and by 1547 there were 2 grist mills in Miskin.

Grist mills typically used large “Grist stones” to grind corn to separate the grain from the chaff. The word grist referrs to the separated grain.

Fulling is the process of beating woven woollen cloth while wet to cause the opposing fibers to interlock and form a more homogenous textile. Although fulling cloth was a common practice much earlier, mechanized fulling mills appeared in Europe in the 12th century.

For more information about the history of the community of Pontyclun please visit our online museum